Vehicle wheels, and in particular light-alloy wheels of motor vehicles, which are customarily designated as alloy rims, are coated in surface-treatment plants with a powder or with another coating material. Subsequently the coating is baked in an oven. For this purpose the vehicle wheels have to be passed from a coating station to an oven. Vehicle wheels made of other materials, in particular steel wheels, are also treated in consecutive operations. Generally speaking, vehicle wheels, irrespective of their material, have to be passed from a first working area to another working area.
For this purpose, use is made of transfer devices of the aforementioned type which are known commercially and in which a gripping module has been fastened to a multi-axial robot arm, by virtue of which the transfer can take place with as many degrees of freedom of motion as possible.
In this case the robot arm picks up one or more vehicle wheels from a first conveyor and moves to a second conveyor to which the robot arm then passes the vehicle wheels. The robot arm then returns unladen to the first conveyor. This idle movement, however, reduces the throughput of the transfer device.
It is therefore an object of the invention to create a device of the aforementioned type with which the throughput in connection with the transferring of vehicle wheels is higher.